The Weather Wizard's Cloud Book offers a foolproof three-step system for predicting the weather. With amazing accuracy, this simple system can account for swiftly changing local weather developments more effectively than weather maps or official area forecasts, which are issued well in advance of weather conditions. Includes more than 120 photographs.
This fascinating slim little volume tells what everyone would like to know, how to tell what weather is coming by simply walking outside, looking at the sky, and feeling the wind. With plenty of photos to help you understand, you can feel confident in your ability to become competent in reading the sky. And doesn't everyone need a good reason to spend more time relaxing, watching the clouds go by?
One day during a business trip to the Right Coast, I complained about the chill. My smartphone told me it was going to be somewhat warm, but my co-worker, who lived back East, said, "It's a Rubin Day". Wait, it's a whatta day?
Turns out that the author was THE expert on predicting weather based on cloud patterns, which is just freaking amazing. Once I learned more, I wasted no time in ordering this book, just to see if it worked on the Left Coast. Well, by jiminy, it sure does. So much for high-tech algorithms. Granted, I have clear blue skies for most of the year, but now I am prepared! I'm just waiting for the poor fool who complains about the weather, so I can sniffingly say, "Hello. It's a Rubin Day".
EXCELLENT book on how to pretty easily determine weather by the clouds and winds. I will be purchasing this for myself. I took too many pictures of the book’s pages…!
“Our general wind circulations are the result of uneven heating of the earth by the sun… If there were no winds, our weather would always be the same.”
“Clouds fortell the weather as clearly as a voice announcing an event about to happen. The winds usher in this event. First, identify the cloud, understand it, know it well, then determine the direction of the wind. “
“Electrically charged ice crystals and water droplets within cumulonimbus are in constant, violent collision. In the same way that our bodies pulled up static electricity through friction with a carpet, the clouds develop into a gigantic “battery”, by experiencing a separation of electrical charge; positive charges accumulate near the top of the cloud, and negative charges near the bottom. Eventually, the cloud must release some of this electrical energy in the form of an electrical discharge, called lightning. It can happen within the same cloud, between two different clouds, or between the cloud and the ground.”
“Thunder is caused by the intense heat surrounding the lightning channel. Sound waves are created as the air close to the lightning bolt is instantly heated and forced to move very fast, that’s producing a ‘sonic boom’ of sorts.”
A quick read (I think I finished it twice and I've had it for about a week) and pretty instructive on how to recognize weather forecasting in cloud distributions.
This book guides you when you want to predict the weather using the clouds. It informs you as to what the clouds look like and what weather they bring or is associated with them. The book is small and light enough to put in a bag so you can bring it with you.
The only fault was the images are a little on the small side.
This books is written in plain language and gives you information on how to anticipate (maybe predict) the whether based on the clouds and winds. There's some great information, with photos and diagrams. Definitely a good reference for the armchair meteorologist.
I got this as a gift and am happy with it. For me, I'll keep it as a reference. It did inspire me to want to start a cloud image collection of my own and to pay more attention not just to the clouds but also to the wind direction.
This is a gem! Even if you live in a bizarre-weather city like Chicago, you can actually predict SOME weather patterns by watching the clouds. This book shows you how.
One of the better books on the subject I have seen. Used it extensively in teaching my kids how to read the clouds and what weather changes they can expect.